Thursday, 6 July 2017

Oby Ezekwesili Speaks On Dino Melaye’s Recall

A former Minister of Education and a co-leader of the #BringBackOurGirls group, Oby Ezekwesili, has attacked Nigeria’s Senate for appearing to be backing the controversial senator, Dino Melaye, against the recall process initiated by the senator’s constituents in Kogi State.

Mr. Melaye had on Tuesday at the plenary begged his co-senators to save him from being recalled, during which the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, assured him that the recall process was “dead on arrival”.

Responding to the remark by Mr. Ekweremadu, Mrs. Ezekwesili, on Twitter, Tuesday, accused the Deputy Senate President of speaking “so cynically and without due respect to citizens’ right”.

Mrs. Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) tweeted, “This too shall pass”.

She then went on to tweet, “Our members of @nassnigeria are like a man who NEVER imagined he would get an Ozo title. He wears the beads on his knees instead of ankles!

“Funny fellows that call themselves ‘Excellencies, Distinguished, and Honorable’. They don’t know that ‘the hood does not make a monk’”.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has been reported as saying that those after Mr. Melaye were only wasting their time, implying that the recall won’t succeed.

Mrs. Ezekwesili responded, still on Twitter, by warning the Senate president to stop “talking down” on citizens.

“No serious leader of any institution of Democracy in a serious country that respects its citizens speaks like you,” she told Mr. Saraki.

The former minister also tweeted about the ongoing face-off between the National Assembly and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, over Mr. Fashola’s allegation that the lawmakers apart from slashing N21 billion off the N31 billion vote for the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, had inserted new projects into the ministry’s 2017 budget.

Mr. Fashola had also accused the National Assembly of taking N5 billion off the budget for the construction of the Second Niger Bridge.

The House of Representatives, Tuesday, summoned Mr. Fashola to appear before it, saying his remarks constituted an incitement of Nigerians against the legislators.

Mrs. Ezekwesili expressed her faith in Mr. Fashola’s ability to stand up to the lawmakers whom she said should be made to refund the “the fat ‘allowances’ they earn for NOTHING”.

When a fellow Twitter user cautioned Mrs. Ezekwesili that she too could be summoned by the National Assembly, she responded: “They won’t. When the 7th NASS insulted me for pointing out their disgraceful ‘allowances,’ I asked for a Debate. They dodged.”

The former minister however said it was not that she did not like the legislative arm of government, but just that she detested their “bad ways”.